Top’ cities in the world by quality of life, infrastructure

In order to to help governments and major companies place employees on international assignments, Mercer Consulting conducts an annual Quality of Living survey ranking and comparing 215 cities around the world by quality of life and infrastructure. When you look at the list, keep in mind that Mercer is a U.S. company.

Here’s their ranking of cities with the highest quality of life based on the following criteria: Political and social environment, economic environment, socio-cultural environment, health and sanitation, schools and education, public services and transportation, recreation, consumer goods, housing, natural environment (for more detailed criteria and a listing of the top 50 cities, go here):

The cities with the best infrastructure based on electricity supply, water availability, telephone and mail services, public transport provision, traffic congestion and the range of international flights from local airports. This may be one of the best indicators of cities with potential to rise:

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neilkt

Anonymous

Take away the Hartsfield airport, and there’s no way Atlanta shows up on the list of would-be risers. There may not be a less sustainable place on earth. They nearly ran out of water last year, and transportation is a complete disaster.

It just goes to show that there are a lot of cities in the world that aren’t in the U.S., but as far as the U.S. is concerned, the economic crisis is laying the groundwork for fundamental change – see How the Crash Will Reshape America.

Catbus

Having lived in both Boston and Chicago, I have to dispute the order. The Boston T breaks down with ridiculous frequency compared with the Chicago “L,” and causes more disruption to transit time when it does. Also, Chicago has NOTHING on Boston in the area of traffic congestion. And rents in Chicago are 60 percent of what you pay in Boston.

geografree

I live in Auckland NZ and it should be nowhere near top 10 in anything except urban sprawl.

Darin

As a life-long Atlantan, I was surprised to see my city appear on the list of those with the best infrastructure above any other in the US. Kind of hard to believe, honestly.

Nonetheless, I certainly would defend my home town against any accusation that it’s a hellish pit of bad development and auto dependency. I live in Midtown with my wife and child and just this morning we walked down wide, pleasant sidewalks to the High Museum (which is adjacent to a MARTA train station) for a visit, then took a free shuttle bus to the Atlantic Station mixed-use development for lunch.

Atlanta’s a long way behind older European cities in regard to walkability and transit, but it’s not as bad as you might think. There have been some great improvements in the past few years, particularly in central Midtown.